Ag News
U.S., Mexico reach trade agreement
Posted on Aug 28, 2018 at 0:00 AM
The United States and Mexico have reached an agreement that the Trump Administration said will benefit American farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses. The office of the United States Trade Representative maintains the deal makes important improvements in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that will enable food and agriculture to trade more fairly between the two countries.
Canada, which participates in NAFTA, was not part of the agreement.
Under a modernized agreement, tariffs on agricultural products traded between the United States and Mexico will remain at zero.
For the first time, the agreement specifically addresses agricultural biotechnology to support 21st century innovations in agriculture, including new technologies such as gene editing. Specifically, the United States and Mexico have agreed to provisions to enhance information exchange and cooperation on agricultural biotechnology trade-related matters.
The United States and Mexico agreed to work together on agriculture matters, improve transparency and consultations on matters affecting trade between the two countries and provide for non-discriminatory treatment in grading of agricultural products.
The United States and Mexico agreed to several provisions to reduce the use of trade-distorting policies, including:
- To not use export subsidies or World Trade Organization (WTO) special agricultural safeguards for products exported to each other’s market.
- Improved commitments to increase transparency and consultation regarding the use of export restrictions for food security purposes.
- If supporting producers, to consider using domestic support measures that have minimal or no trade-distorting or production effects and ensure transparency of domestic support and supply management programs.
The agreement included language to ensure non-discriminatory grading standards and enhanced rules for food sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures for food safety. Under WTO rules, SPS measures cannot be used to disguise trade restrictions. The U.S.-Mexico agreement strengthens science-based SPS measures while increasing transparency.
For more about the U.S.-Mexico agreement, visit https://gfb.ag/USMextradeagmt.
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